Every year, during the first ten days of May, the Festival de la Coppiette is celebrated in the city of Marcellina, about thirty kilometers northeast of Rome, in the province of Lazio. Organized by the Committee of the Butteri (mountain shepherds), it reflects the simultaneous celebrations dedicated to the Madonna del Ginestre. However, the committee cares less about the hunger of the soul and more about the hunger of the stomach.

Coppiette are strips of meat that have been dried, cured with salt and pepper, and then seasoned with fennel and pepperoncino (Italian hot peppers). Southeast of Rome, in the province of Frosinone, locals include garlic and white wine to make coppiette ciociare. This is a simple meal and was part of the staple diet enjoyed in the past by farmers and humble peasants alike. Has a close relative. Coppiette would have been understood as a dried meat for the pioneers who opened the American West in the 19th century, and for the Native Indians found by settlers. The Dutch voortrekkers (which literally means antenna shooters) who made the great journey through South Africa to escape the British in the 1830s and 1840s, were supported by something strikingly similar: they called it biltong.

It is not difficult to understand its appeal. These dried meats are rich in protein and residual fat. They also have high levels of salt added during the drying process to inhibit any bacterial activity. Lazian’s tired and hydrated peasant, after a day in the field, chewed coppiette and quickly revived himself with a concentrated injection of energy and nutrients. These meat ‘sticks’ packed next to nothing in your pocket; they were also inherently stable because all excess fat and moisture had been removed. Nestled in the dark corners of a backpack or pocket, they can last for days or even months.

Then and now, the raw material used to make the sausage depends on the location. Cowboys and Native Americans cut strips of beef and game species, such as buffalo, deer, and elk. In South Africa, beef biltong is still the most common variety available, but today Afrikaaner also uses ostriches and game species such as kudu, wildebeest and gazelle. In the Lazio region of Italy, horse and donkey were the common options available. Today, most coppiettes are made from pork.

However, with its aversion to pork, the Jewish community makes its own version with beef. A good butcher could sell you some coppiette with meat from the prestigious Maremmana, a breed of cattle raised in the Maremma, an ancient marshland that stretches between southern Tuscany and northern Lazio. If you visit the small town of Genzano, the residents can offer you their own rare specialty with donkey meat.

In times past, no part of the animal was wasted; Today, butchers, and those who still make it at home, focus on the fibrous muscle tissue that surrounds the ham, shoulder or abdomen. Strips 10-15 centimeters long and 2 centimeters thick are cut from the carcass and seasoned in wooden vats, before being gently cooked for half an hour in a firebrick kiln fired with scrub. The excess water is drained off and the meat is baked for an additional half hour before being allowed to dry for up to 48 hours in wire cages.

Coppiette, like its South African biltong relative, differs from jerky in this respect. While the latter are dried in the sun or on fire, the more traditional biltong and coppiette are air dried in the cold winter months. Lazio produces its specialty throughout the year and in other months it follows the jerky method and uses a special drying room. In both cases, the dried meat is tied with a rope in pairs or coppiette (meaning ‘little pairs’) and matured for two months. After a very light final smoking, the finished product is bagged or packed in trays ready for sale in taverns, butchers and wine bars.